Cohen acknowledges rigging polls for Trump in 2014 and 2015

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's estranged former lawyer is acknowledging that he paid a technology company to rig Trump's standing in two online polls.

Michael Cohen tweeted Thursday that "what I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of" Trump.

Technology company owner John Gauger told The Wall Street Journal that Cohen promised him $50,000 for work including using computers to enter fake votes for Trump in a 2014 CNBC poll asking people to identify top business leaders and a 2015 poll of potential presidential candidates. Gauger says Cohen paid him about a quarter of the money in cash, then stiffed him on the rest.

The Trump Organization later paid a $50,000 reimbursement to Cohen. It didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

FILE - In this Dec. 7, 2018 file photo, Michael Cohen, former lawyer to President Donald Trump, leaves his apartment building in New York. A report by BuzzFeed News, citing two unnamed law enforcement officials, says that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress and that Cohen regularly briefed Trump on the project. The Associated Press has not independently confirmed the report. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

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